CRUORITES
Quote:  "Do you consider me wicked because of my trade or because of my...  nature? I'll find your answer hypocritical one way or another."

Nickname: Juicers

Disciplines:  Fortitude, Presence, Claret - Instead of the sinuous grace, wondrously  acute senses and great and inhuman passion of Toreadors, the vast amount of blood Countess Elizabeth was Embraced in suffused her with incredible vigor and supernatural power over the sanguine liquid, somewhat similar  but not at all alike to Quietus or Tremere blood sorcery, instead much  more simplistic, primal and visceral - but by no means less dangerous  because of that.

Sect:  To hear them say it, Cruorites are, all to a man, staunch allies of the  Ivory Tower, but any kindred who somehow witnessed their rituals will  most probably seriously doubt it - right until a close, personal and very serious meeting with members of the bloodline in some dark and  secluded alley.

Throughout  the history, vampires were great leaders and charismatic - or at least  very manipulative - rulers, invisible viziers controlling the mortal  world from the dark of the night, whispering into the ear of the likes of Caesar(and Brutus), stirring up tensions between Lancasters and Plantagenets,  swaying the policies of Sede Sancrorum and directing Coteaz and Pizarro to the New World. But, as fate has it, sometimes even the best and most  refined Kindred have to mingle with the likes of Tiberius, Caligula and  Nero and cater to the frothing of Eric XIV and Juana of Castille - and  the sight, taste and smell of Humanity's most base, primitive and wicked  side is sure to rouse the Beast within even the most composed and  wilful soul, sometimes with most unfavorable results for the kindred.

As  Vlad the Impaler savagely ripped power and immortality from his  unwilling Tzimisce sire together with his heart, so Countess Elizabeth  Bathory managed to outwit her Toreador cavalier in conversation,  overcome him in amorous advances and, to the latter's surprise and  horror, outdo the ancient undead monster in the matters of inventive,  perverted and twisted savagery, earning herself a curse from God,  eternal hatred of fire and sun and, together with that, all the time in  the world to spend partaking in pleasures even more horrible and  ingenious than what was available to her in life.

A  thousandfold more evil, insatiable and inhuman than many a jaded Elder,  Elizabeth was not at all related to any supernatural matters or beings,  did not have an daemonic patron requiring human sacrifices or attempted  to fulfil some ancient prophecy - completely mundane and mortal, she  simply got  a great kick out of doing most horrible, evil, inhuman,  despicable and indescribable things only the most sadistic and jaded fiends could even imagine -  bathing in blood and cannibalizing young maidens was only one of her  lasting habits. It isn't known whether it was delight and ecstasy or  infinite disgust for humanity that forced her sire to Embrace the  countess during her sanguine bathing, but the fact remains that because  of the emotion, lifeblood and suffering suffusing all the Vitae on the  site, something went wrong and the Countess emerged from beneath the  blood as something slightly different from the normal progeny of  Toreador - for example, she did not develop any taste for high arts and  natural beauty of the world, except, of course, in a purely physical  sense.

One  way or another, Elizabeth only saw opportunity and gain in this curse  and made no delay in plunging into the Kindred society, fulfilling her  most exotic desires and developing new ones. It wasn't long until she  discovered Diablerie and made a successful attempt at her Sire's vitae,  and promptly escaping back to her old domains to satisfy her newfound  taste for kindred blood undisturbed by Camarilla's hounds - founding her  own bloodline and unwittingly instigating her demise in process. To  practice her new favorite sin, Elizabeth took to luring her good friends  and faithful servants into the Embrace with promises of opulence, great  power, perverse pleasure and infinite life, then grooming and toying  with her childe until they finally were unable to provide entertainment  and devouring them - a secret which, when uncovered by an absolute  accident, lead to her descendants swarming their mistress in a  small-scale coup d'etat that left several dozen clueless fledglings in  possession of her estate, land and dark curse and Elizabeth herself a milk-white carcass picked clean of flesh and skin by her frenzied spawn.

Four  hundred years, many horribly awkward parleys and explanations with  Hungarian Camarilla and a river of bloody tears later the Cruorites are sparsely  spread through Europe and America, small, tightly bound and unusually  brotherly groups of kindred or especially powerful, old or socially  awkward loners living in comfortable, luxurious and long-established  city-bound havens due to the habits and needs they inherited from the  Countess or constantly traveling the land for the same reason.  Tolerated by the Ivory Tower, they understand clearly what would happen should their failings come to light in a civilized society and never spare the effort to present themselves flawlessly and prevent  even the notion of anything suspicious from originating from their  domains - especially things like petty little rumors about them needing  at least a dozen warm bodies' worth of blood in order to quench that horrible, cold, squirming and sucking thirst inside.

Appearance:  Almost to the last, (fed) Cruorites are beautiful and lively, in a more  traditional, earthly sense that favors a natural look, healthy blush and a smallest bit of excess weight, their skin only slightly cool  to the touch and unmarred by unsightly, pimples, scars or acne. A  kindred that had no possibility to properly feed lately, however, begins  to rapidly deteriorate, and not in a usual vampiric way - instead of  shriveling and drying up, the Cruorite messily rots, flesh bulging with  putrid gas, tearing and sloughing off the bones with slightest effort as  the borrowed life escapes their bodies.

Havens:  Most often vast, well-guarded and luxurious, almost always  incorporating an absolutely decadent bathing chamber or a grim and  well-hidden dungeon. A big estate or patrimony on the outskirts of a  lively city greatly appeals to Cruorites. For obvious reasons, they  rarely if at all share a communal haven with any kindred other than of  their own clan.

Background:  Varies - some Cruorites, in their desire to continue Elizabeth's  legacy, seek out worthy and sufficiently decadent and influential members  of the high society to embrace while some embrace new kindred to keep  themselves company or to punish especially vile, cruel and lustful mortals for their sinful ways.

Character  Creation: Social attributes almost always primary, with Physical and  Mental tied behind. Skills and Knowledges often get more recognition with  Cruorites due to the bloodline's legacy of nobility and high class.  Backgrounds are always valued, especially Herd, Haven, Contacts, Domain  and Resources. Cruorites dedicate themselves most of all to cultivation  of their Virtues, Willpower and Path - due to their unique needs and  methods of feeding, Beast must be often forcefully restrained. As a  relatively young and recent bloodline, no Cruorite possesses a Generation  lower than 8.

Weakness:  Every Cruorite's Beast possesses a much darker, visceral and insatiable  hunger than most of the Kindred, something that is both a boon and a  bane to the bloodline - though most of them agree on the latter.  Cruorites can't drink blood, but instead must wallow and bathe in it  like animals would in dirt, absorbing the blood's essence with their  skin - and it must always be A LOT  of precious vitae. In order to satiate themselves, a Cruorite must hungrily digest, submerge in or cover himself in at least 5 BP worth of blood - any amount less simply doesn't spark the hunger of their voracious Beasts -  consuming it takes one round per point. The blood itself is barely  consumed by the Cruorite - instead, he draws in the mystical life-force  it carries, after which the liquid quickly spoils and rots.
The  Vitae doesn't need to come from a single person, or indeed, any person  at all - animal blood does fine, but leaves a filthy stench and doesn't  feel any kind of good.

 On  the flipside, such profound and esoteric method of consumption has  it's benefits - the stolen life  energies fill him in a way  quite a bit  different from the satiation  that other vampires draw from  their prey  - bolstering the vampire's  body and even restoring him to  some wicked  semblance of life. Of course, the Cruorite may get by fairly well by  simply smearing the liquids of some alleyway hobo all over his face or pour  the donor blood on his naked body, but those are merely half-measures that no  self-respecting Cainite would suffer through for longer than absolutely  needed - and why should he ever want to do that considering how much  more pleasant the real thing is?

As long as the Cruorite manages to take a bath - with enough vitae to, well, bathe in - of fresh (extracted for no longer  than for a  full day) human (who must be deceased) blood regularly at very least once  a week, his  Stamina and Appearance scores increase by 1 per every week  he hasn't  missed his treatments up to his Generation Maximum and gains  the  benefits of Blush of Life and Deceptive Aura merits. Additionally,  as  long as he sustains his weekly feedings, the vampire does not  require to  spend a blood point in order to wake up each morning.  However, for  every week that a vampire spends without partaking in his oblations - no  matter how many blood points he has and how much he satiates himself  through the "half-measures" - his Stamina score decreases by 1 until it reaches 1 and his Appearance score lowers by 1 up to 0 at which point he looks so much like a putrid corpse that no one sees a  difference even as the decay progresses. At Storyteller's discretion,  especially severe cases may merit the decrease of Dexterity as Kindred's  bloated fingers and limbs hinder his movement and fine manipulation or downright loss of limbs or sensory organs.